[center][color=a187be][h1]Yayama Yama[/h1][/color]
Location: Esaka's Low Tier
Status: Still a little concerned
LV: 5, EXP: 5/50
Word Count: 534[/center]

It turned out that her efforts to assuage the crowd's doubts were all for naught. They got riled up again almost immediately after she managed to pacify them a bit (or at least turn their agitation inwards), and importantly were angling toward a point that Yayama herself was getting very curious about, making it harder for her to think of plausible ways to deflect their suspicion. Furthermore, in the midst of considering a solution to this difficulty, the man currently having a breakdown continued to do so until he was fed up with the jeering mass and treated them to another display of power. At the very least, he stopped to thank her for her efforts, which was always nice. "Just trying to calm things down a bit. Seemed like the right thing to do." She watched him walk off, keeping in mind what he'd said about where to find him later. "Good luck." She wasn't entirely certain what she was wishing him luck for, but it felt appropriate. He clearly had [i]something [/i]important to deal with.

She followed the group of fighters out, for reasons that were in equal parts intent and coincidence. Then one of them - Sakura, evidently - introduced herself, and asked a question she never quite knew how to answer. "I am Yayama Yama of the Stalwart Sword, ex-Scion of the Seventh Dawn. Nowadays I'm just an adventurer, but I suppose a lot of people would call me a hero." It wasn't that she didn't think of herself as a hero, per se - it was just that the term felt like an oversimplification. Her journey was long, complex, and far from shining brilliantly the whole way through, with despair and hope in near-equal amounts to be found along the way. "Hero" also seemed to fit more uncomfortably as of late, for reasons she hadn't quite been able to put her finger on. "Mostly I try to lend a hand where I'm needed, and I've never been one to back down from a challenge. It seemed like your group had plenty to deal with internally," she said, vaguely nodding in the direction Terry had gone, "and the crowd was getting agitated enough to be an actual danger, so I decided to step in. Worst comes to worst, they focus on the foreigner who came here to meddle in their ancient customs and barged into a perfectly normal fight unprompted and unwanted."

The last bit wasn't entirely inaccurate. She had no intention of interfering with Esaka's culture overall - there was nothing wrong with martial practice as long as it didn't result in a decision that their less-combative neighbors didn't deserve their lands or treasures if they couldn't keep up with their standards - but the idea of a sanctioned martial arts tournament where death was not only common, but expected was an outlier she wasn't willing to simply sit by and tolerate. "I was hoping to wait a bit longer before I agitated the locals, but I suppose it was going to happen eventually. How are you holding up? That fight looked pretty intense, even if you do know one another, and the big guy seems like he's got a storm raging inside him."